{happy blogversary to me}

October 31, 2009

1 comment
One year ago today I started blogging about my upcoming wedding. Wedding planning sure goes fast, as of yesterday we have been married five months...and we still like each other{haha}.

Now for the giveaway winner...my mom Lisa. I cracked up when random.org said commenter number 3 won.

Hope everyone has a great Halloween. I will be taking part in my long standing tradition of watching Hocus Pocus and passing out/eating candy to kids. Hopefully we will have trick-or-treaters here because at my old apartment there never were kids and one year one kid came and I had nothing and the mother was ticked that I had nothing to give out.


Read More

Flashback Friday

October 30, 2009

1 comment
A few years ago our church got a group together and went to Keystone, Colorado to ski and do a little mission work. Great trip, only second to my England mission trip.



{Anna and I}


{Anna and I again, in the outdoor hot tub. It was snowing...and it was awesome}


{Lane and I, the snow was well over my head but I could only wiggle in there that deep}


{the whole group, well the kid/youth group/college part}

Don't forget, tomorrow the giveaway ends...only because is my one year blogversary! Today is also my cousin Chris's Birthday, so Happy Birthday Chris!





Read More

{monkey see, monkey do}

October 27, 2009

1 comment
Do you remember the Souffled Banana Pancake? Well I finally followed the recipe and made it with pumpkin. Totally yummy with the pumpkin, and really makes for a good fall breakfast. I've just been in a bit of a pumpkin kick here lately though.


And for an old 4H winner from years back....Beef Wellington. For the first time ever Jeremy requested something I have cooked to eat, whoo hoo! About time is all I have to say, he is probably the only guy I've come in contact with that didn't absolutely love everything I cooked. I've had proposals, fake none the less, over my meatloaf and cupcakes in years past from guy friends hanging around during college. Heck in the dorms once a guy weaseled his way into my all girls dorm and somehow get into my room and take the Peanut Butter Balls he had heard I made, needless to say I caught him running down the road shoveling PB Balls down his throat trying to escape me.

But back to the Beef Wellington, its is super easy and looks and taste like it was much harder, just lie about how you made the crust and everyone will be none the wiser.


1st place 4H Beef Wellington:
 1 lb ground beef
1/2 bag of seasoning blend
3/4 bag of italian blend cheese
1/2 c sour cream
1-2 cloves garlic minced
salt & pepper
italian seasoning
2 cans of crescent roll dough
1 can sliced mushrooms

Saute seasoning blend and mushrooms until onions are soft, add ground beef and brown. Season to taste, I sometimes add cajun seasoning. Add sour cream and cheese to meat mixture. Roll out dough on baking sheet pinching seams together. Spoon half of meat mixture down the middle of the dough, fold dough over beef and pinch down the middle to seal, also pinch ends to seal. Brush with egg wash and bake according to crescent roll directions. Usually 375 for 12 mins.
Makes two Beef Wellingtons.

And the side is my go-to roasted sweet potatoes with green onion. You may notice that I make it a lot, before I found that recipe it was homemade sweet potato fries with taco seasoning.


.....................................................

Something not food related...and I know you are thinking to yourself "Does she do anything but eat?"


We went to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo this past Saturday, aka the place where they send old depressed monkeys. We of course went with a purpose, because psychology majors only go to this zoo when a certain monkey loving psych professor teaching Comparative Psychology assigns his "you must be in Hutto's class paper". In Comparative everyone has to write a paper comparing two species of animal that they observe "for several hours" doing all sorts of things depressed animals at our depressive zoo will not do for you, like interact with each other. Well I took this class a few years ago, back in my psych days when I was allowed to have a brain, but ole Jer is just now making his way into the land of hard core Hutto loving stuff. So we went about lunch time hoping to see something eating or awake or just about anything, after wandering around seeing a bunch of nothing(i.e. a bird saying hello to everyone, a turtle, a cage that said it contained a turkey but instead had a buffalo, and being stalked by some large bird that I can't remember the name of at the moment) we headed to the monkey cage in hopes of seeing more than one monkey in that cage. Luckily we found a bunch of baboons picking junk off of each other and eating, and the little squirrel monkeys in the photo above eating pineapple like it was going out of style. I am just glad he got a better observation that I had, I spent 30 minutes watching the same depressed monkey hold onto a branch for dear life with a "please kill me" look on its face.

This all has me thinking, there are three definite way to tell if someone is or was a psychology major at ULM.
1. If you have ever used the word ambiguous in an everyday conversation.
2. If you have ever had to go to the zoo and watch monkeys eat.
3. If you can pass a stats class and still have no idea how to do statistics.

Don't forget about the giveaway that ends Saturday! 
 
Read More

is there something they forgot to tell me?

October 25, 2009

4 comments
I had a bit of a meeting the other day that has me pretty irritated...and its been a few days. Apparently your age and height have a lot to do with how well you manage a classroom. Who knew. And apparently someone forgot to tell me I was born a little person cause I am apparently having problems due to my height, either than or I'm four years old and no one mentioned it to me. But at the same time I was told I needed to find a way to overcome this height issue...what height issue? I could have swore 5'4'' was average! But hey, after my last crazy comment I blurted out and quickly realized it would probably come back to haunt me...in two to four weeks...life in the teaching realm can't get any worse.

The little comment went this way:

Intercom: Can you please send ______ to the office.

Student: What on earth did I do?

Me: Hey, I'm just glad to see someone else being called to the office other than me.

How much money do you wanna bet this one gets reworded and comes back in a few weeks. Trust me it will, I apparently called the kids hoodrats and supposedly someone spit in my trash can and I said "Don't spit in my F-ing trash can!" Do you want to know my theory on why this is happening...I am following the rules and taking away recess and writing kids up when they break rules and they are lashing out at me...now if someone would just believe me when I say they are attempting to take a career hit out on me. I'm not joking, one kid told a kid in my class they were going to make me nuts till I quit or lie till I get fired. Vindictive? Yes! Will I survive? Guess we will find out. Needless to say anyone who is thinking about having kids should hang out with some, this is hardcore birth control.

Read More

Sunday Lunch and Pumpkin Carving

October 24, 2009

No comments

I'd comsider this rather a late post...this is last weekends fun/lunch.
Meatloaf:
1lb ground beef
1/2 onion
1/2 bell pepper
1 egg
italian bread crumbs
whorestershire sauce
cajun seasoning
1 clove garlic
salt & pepper
italian seasoning


Mix ingredients together, the amount of bread crumbs will vary so just use however much you think you need. Shape into a loaf and top with bbq sauce. Bake at 375 for about 20-30 mins.

Loaded Mashed Potatoes
1 5lb bag of small red skin potatoes
1/2 sour cream
1/2 cheddar cheese
garlic
onion powder
salt & pepper
bacon salt
butter

Boil potatoes until fork tender. Mash and add all other ingredients to taste.

Sunday night we had a few people over to carve pumpkins, here are a few pictures of the carving fun.








Always one to get overly excited about sweets I became unknowingly attacked to the caramel apple wrapper after attempting to suck any left over caramel off of it. Guess that is what I get for being a fatty.
Hope everyone had a good Saturday, don't forget to sign up for the giveaway it ends on Halloween.

Read More

If you have seen my sanity please return it promptly.

October 22, 2009

3 comments
I swear I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, but at this point I wouldn't mind doing so. I've just had problems with the apparently usual first year teacher junk. Up until today I held strong and did well though. After a little event yesterday I wasn't in the mood for anything today, so getting observed was not my cup of tea. I might have done better but the timing of the observation was bad, plus on test days I play classical music to ease test anxiety(plus it has been shown to improve brain function and yada yada)...well anyway after my observer left the room and chaos ensued again and at that very moment "Fur Elise" started playing on my computer. You may think okay no big deal right, well that song was the whole reason Nanny learned to play piano, and at that point I couldn't help it, I just cried. Needless to say I picked the wrong class to do it in. I am almost positive crying in class will come back on me, just like everything else.  

But there is good news this week. My advisor approved me to move to south Louisiana, so that means Jeremy can go to Nichols and there is nothing to worry about except finding a job for me and a place to live. Huge sigh of relief. Just pray Jeremy gets into graduate school there.

Tomorrow I'm planning to do a big post about Sunday lunch and our little pumpkin carving party. Good thing I took pictures cause those little pumpkins are rotting their hollow heads out. 

Hope you all have a great Friday. Don't forget to enter the giveaway, it ends on Halloween!

Read More

Lately...

October 17, 2009

3 comments
Who knows why, but for some reason lately the dogs have issues with pillows. It seems like every time I get the pillows arranged on the couch they push them all off. I am not kidding, this morning all the pillows were literally pushed off the couch and they were sleeping on top of the pillows on the floor.

But that is not the only thing they have problems with. Ellie has a huge problem with the blanket I leave on the window seat, I've caught her several times pushing it to the floor with her nose.

Maybe I should just let the dogs decorate since they appear to have a problem with how I do things(ha ha).

Read More

kids and dogs

October 15, 2009

4 comments
After telling my daschund to sit about thirty times today without her ever actually sitting it made me think...I do this all day. I am either telling 5th graders to sit and be quiet, or I'm telling daschunds to sit and stop biting each other. So you may ask, what do 5th graders and daschunds have in common?

1. Both have to be given directions several times to actually do the given task.

2. Both are not easily trained.

3. Like daschunds, 5th graders know the rules but only follow them when they feel like it.

4. They both carry around more mud and dirt than humanly possible.

And Lord knows this weather is great fun. A kid this morning asked if we were going to die this morninng. I, not know the weather situation, commented back "Yes, we will all die this morning, it is the end of the world, now can we take our test?" Who knew that about 30 minutes later all hell would break loose and a tornado would nearly touch down on our school. And after an hour of sitting in the hallway waiting for the storm to pass and watching that same kid have the most serious look on his face after thinking that we really were going to die, I kinda felt bad and updated them on the weather for the rest of the day. What luck.

What was even funnier is that one kid kept asking how long he had been on the floor, another wanted to know if he would ever get to eat lunch(it was only 10am). And my favorite...an extremely bord child asked me to get my book and read to them. Needless to say the librarian who was in the hall didn't agree with the idea of reading scary stories to the kids(like I've been doing since its October) and picked up where I left off on Fudge, poor kids weren't too happy. But I'm sure I'd be getting a bunch of mean calls from parents saying their kids couldn't sleep because of things I read to them.

Read More

What are the chances?

October 13, 2009

1 comment
Some how Jeremy made the same GRE score I did...weird. But it is a good score and he more than likely won't have a problem getting into grad school with it. So yay, all that studying paid off! But what are the chances you and your husband make the same GRE score?

Read More

Saturday at the Shrine and Sunday Lunch

October 12, 2009

3 comments
I absolutely love going home, something about Vidalia is just so much better than Monroe. But after five years of not liking Monroe I have started to like anywhere...even West Monroe is better than Monroe, and I hate West Monroe too. Since it was the second Saturday my cousin Chris and my future cousin in law Brandi decided to come to town to watch Pop play music so I decided to come to town too. Mom, Chris, Brandi and I had a ton of fun listening to Pop play, and sing, but we didn't dance...the four of us just aren't the dancing type. I told Jeremy he has to come next time so I have someone to dance with, I seem to only dance when drug onto the dance floor by either him or Nanny. This is also the first time we stayed the whole 3 hours, Nanny usually started saying about nine that is was time for bed, and like clock work I looked at my watch at exactly nine. When the guys started playing Mustang Sally I immediately found the picture of Nanny from August dancing to that song that last time we all went to the Shrine and showed Chris, and not surprising Chris said the same thing I said "I can't believe that was just in August."






Surefire Band



Now for Sunday...
I made a recipe I found in Glamour years ago called Engagement Chicken. Supposedly all the girls that made this recipe were engaged within a short time of making the chicken. I have added a few ingredients to it, maybe it's just a southern thing but I have to put garlic and onions in everything.


Engagement Chicken
1 whole chicken
1 c butter
1-2 tbsp minced garlic
1 lemon, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
thyme
1 onion

Preheat the over to 375. Clean chicken. Mix ingredients except lemon in a small bowl. Rub butter mixture under chicken skin and on the inside of the chicken. Stuff lemon slices under skin. Slice onion and place a few slices under the chicken and in the chicken cavity. Bake until skin is crispy and chicken is cooked through. Roughly 45 mins to an hour.

Baked Mac and Cheese
1 lb macaroni
milk
flour
1 block cheddar cheese, shredded
1 block mozarella cheese, shredded
3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and pepper
Italian bread crumbs
2 tbsp butter



Cook pasta. In small pot melt butter and add about 2 tbsp flour, cook until slightly browned. Add about 2 cups of milk and bring to simmer until thickened. Add shredded cheese, garlic, bacon, salt and pepper. Mix cheese sauce with pasta and put in a casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and bake at 375 until bubbly.  

.................................


The week appears to be starting off good. After two weeks of absolute chaos my Mom had the idea to start recording my class, and today was day one of recording the kids. I made a point to tell the class I'm recording that if I have to I will let the principal listen to things they do and say. Needless to say being recorded didn't effect them...they still acted their usual way. But today went better than expected because due to the rainy weather the like Friday they let us out of school early today. I wasn't heartbroken though, I feel junky today and came home to take a nap. 

Keep your fingers crossed for Jeremy though, he is taking the GRE as we speak...and I really hope he gets the score he wants. Which could mean we will be moving down south for him to go to graduate school. I am all for it though because I have more family down south, and a really good friend from high school. Call me crazy but after I feel like I've had a hard time making friends in college, or at least one that stick around. I still talk to my high school friends pretty often, but college friends are hard to keep up with unless I see them on campus or at church often. 

Oh, don't forget to leave a comment to register for my giveaway! 





Read More

Sweet Potato Queens Giveaway

October 8, 2009

4 comments
So I've been thinking I wanted to do a Sweet Potato Queen giveaway to celebrate my one year of blogversary on Halloween, and what do ya know when I went to the SPQ website today their main page has a In Memory Of the Queen Mother. She died on September 30, wasn't September just an all around sad month this year. So considering how much Nanny loved SPQ, and even included them in the cookbook I am typing up, I am going to do a SPQ giveaway. The SPQ are also big supporters of the American Cancer Society and are actually walking with the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer on Halloweeen day, and even before...but especially since Nanny over came her battle with breast cancer our family have also been supporters of the ACS and I can't think of a better way to celebrate my blogversary other than giving away The Sweet Potato Queens 1st Big Ass Novel. These ladies are hilarious and if you haven't read their books I suggest you start, they have great stories and even better recipies.


So in honor of Nanny, The Queen Mother, and one year of blogging about all sorts of junk you have the chance to win a Sweet Potato Queen book, but there are a few things you have to do first.


1. Leave a comment, make sure I know who you are and leave an email so I can contact you if you win.
2. To get another chance to win start following me, not literally, and leave a comment telling me you did so.
3. To get yet another chance to win post about my giveaway, and leave a comment letting me know you did and a link to get to it.
4. To get 5 extra entries make a donation to the American Cancer Society or Susan G. Komen in honor of Nanny and The Queen Mother. If you do so leave 5 comments all saying that you donated and to which foundation you donated to, and make sure to leave your email so I can contact you.


The giveaway will end October 31 so you have plenty of time to enter!


Read More

the current weather situation is fitting for my mood

October 5, 2009

3 comments
I had a picture of Nanny that I had been planning to frame but didn't have a white frame(I am obsessed with white frames) or paper or fabric to put behind it. I just so happened upon this wonderful paper at Michael's Sunday and I think it turned out pretty good. I have it stuck in my antique room(Nanny's idea) and it fits in well. This whole weekend has just been stinking tough though. It hit me Friday that it had been 4 weeks and that today was a month and I just freaked out. My head seems to be keeping me from believing this is real all the time, I tend to go on as usual then all the sudden it hits me and I just cry. The picture below is just a close up of the one above. It isn't very good quality but I love it.

We had or friends Ashley and Philip over to hang out and watch the Saints game(I think, I didn't watch) and during half time the guys broke out the P90X yoga so Philip could check it out. Well as usual Maddie, who loves yoga, had to participate. Notice in the picture where Philip is doing the "upward dog" position Maddie is directly under him staring up like she is doing it too.
Now to back track a bit, Friday while working on the cookbook I noticed that oh so sneaky, and always the one to lie about what is in a recipe, left out the bread pudding. Not one to be easily defeated I looked up an old fashioned bread pudding recipe and called my Mom, she thought it sounded about right so I went with it. Nanny has been making this bread pudding for as long as my mother can remember but for some reason the woman never showed us how to make it, and it wasn't for lack of trying.
Here is the bread pudding pre-baking. All you do is tear up any bread you have from the week before and throw it in a bowl, add milk, 2-3 eggs, cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar. Add what you think you need till it looks like a thick cake batter. Nanny said she always eyeballed it and had no idea how much stuff she put in it. When your done pour it in a well buttered baking dish and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350. Below is a picture of the finished product. I am working on her sauce, Mom thinks she knows how to make it. I just did a quick rum sauce that I wouldn't force anyone to eat. But the bread pudding tasted very much like hers.


On a side note...I think the kids are getting me again. I feel like I am getting sick.


Read More

blog award

October 3, 2009

3 comments
I got a blog award from Mrs. Bee at the Secret Life of Sass and Lex!


The rules are that I have to write 10 honest things about me that you don't already know, this might prove to be difficult.

1. I went to Great Missenden, England when I was 14 on a mission trip, without my parents, just the church group. It was weird going on such a huge trip like that without anyone I was related to.

2.  I love pickles, Jeremy complains about me eating them in bed. One year for my birthday Nanny and Pop gave me a huge jar of pickled okra and one of spicy beans, hands down best gift ever.

3. In high school there is a pageant every year for senior girls, The Miss Vidalia Pageant. Well there are all sorts of guidelines you have to follow and when you find your dress you have to call it in to the pageant lady so you don't have the same one as someone else. I called mine in at the store before I even bought it, a few days later someone tried to call one in that was "similar" to mine. The girls mother came to our house to check it out and it was the exact same dress. Even though the other girl had bought her dress first I called mine in first so I got to keep mine, needless to say that caused some serious high school drama.

4. Nanny got me addicted to Clinique, we always use to wait for the sale papers to come out and go buy just enough to get the free gift bag...and that gift bag was stinking awesome.

5. I have to have my hair in a ponytail when I sleep, or I don't sleep.

6. As much as I hate facial hair I prefer that Jeremy has facial hair. I attribute my hate for facial hair to my father holding me down and rubbing his stubble on my face as a kid...the way stubble feels still freaks me out

7. I like to sleep with my daschunds during the winter, they are little heating pads. But during the summer they are a one way ticket to sweating your butt off in bed.

8. My car was the victim of a hit and run 5 times between October 2006 and October 2007. I am convinced now that my poor no longer pretty Sunfire is suicidal after our little being run off the road by some old hick incident.

9. I love garage sales.

10. Although my reptile/amphibian fear use to cover fish, lizards, and frogs I have recently become less fearfull of frogs. Meaning, no one has to carry me to the car if I see one...but I'm still not touching it and I may run if you come near me with one.

Now I am forwarding this one to:

Gabby @ Gabby's Zoo
Casey @ Avery's Place
Amanda @ World of the Wilson's
Nicki @ The Kennon Family

Hope everyone has a great Saturday, we are going tailgating and hoping ULM wins their homecoming game...but this is ULM we are talking about so there is a chance we will lose.

Read More

week from hell

October 2, 2009

5 comments
Well my already cruddy week got even cruddier when a mother at parent teacher conference told me she not only knew I was newly married, my age, and that I had just graduated college, she also threw in that I had no kids and that she did her research. And apparently having no kids makes you a bad teacher. I started to tell her "Oh yeah in my interview when they asked how many kids I had I lied so I'd get the job." She also said I should treat the kids like they are my own...I am sure I treat many of them better than their parents do. But ugh what a week. Luckily out of all of my parents the majority were lovely and as sweet as could be...two were slightly wacky though.

But the few minutes of happines this week were spent eating my chicken veggie soup. I only make it in the winter and since it finally got chilly I decided it was time for soup.


Chicken and Veggie Soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can veggie broth
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can no salt added corn
1 can green beans
1 bag of roasting carrots, roughly 6 or 7 rough chopped
5 stalks of celery chopped
4 bay leaves
cajun seasoning
salt and pepper
1 lb of bone in chicken thighs
1 can cubed potatoes or 1/2 box of whole wheat macaroni
1 can peas
1 large onion rough chopped

Pour both cans of broth into a stock pot, add as much water as you think you need. Add skinned bone in chicken, carrots, onion, and celery, and any and all seasoning bring to a boil and cook until chicken pulls off the bone easily. Pull and shred chicken and remove bones from soup. Drain corn, peas, potatoes, and green beans and add to soup. Add tomotoes without draining. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until flavors are coming together.

No pics this week, I just found my camera today...it has been hiding from me again. Oh and October 31 is the one year anniversary of my blog, since I am so big on cooking I am thinking about doing a giveaway cookbook, I am also finishing up the one my grandmother was working on before she died, and adding my Louisiana Bride recipes and a few others for the giveaway, or maybe even the cookbook from Regina Charboneau who did my wedding.


Read More